92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

ated to understand both worlds, has to seek out the help of Zoe to get Estaban released from the DifferNet. Since Zoe was a burned-out comput er whiz, there is a brief conflict between Happy Panda and Zoe about her not getting involved, until Hap convinces her that Estaban's "real" life is at stake. Entering the world of the talking animals while not fully prepared makes him more vulnerable to the agents of entropy that exist within the DifferNet. Tricked by the Bugs, the Birds of Pray are out-maneuvered and Estaban's data is captured. It is revealed that the Platonian essence of each person is what exists in the DifferNet, and the Bugs' force-of-nature motivations require only the destruction of all data. Estaban discovers that it is not only his data that is imperiled, but the very fabric of the universe is in jeopardy, too. Groomed to be the bridge between information person ified, and the "real" world application of such knowledge, Estaban realizes that the fundamental truth of the old adage "knowledge is power." Back in the "real" world, after a mild crisis of faith, we tie up this issue as Zoe is convinced to help Hap and the Mathemagicians with their plan for Estaban's extraction, as the stakes are raised by the Bugs. Not only are the Bugs trying in the DifferNet to erase Estaban's data, but their agents are trying to kill his body in the "real" world, too. Some days a digitally-encod ed Messiah just can't catch a break... Issue four resolves the "question of identity" theme that has been an under current in the mini-series so far. As Zoe's data follows Happy Panda into the DifferNet, she learns that she is more than the sum total of knowledge that she has assumed has defined her character; that is, her original burn out as a programmer was because of a lack of faith in her own abilities. It is those self-same skills that allow the rescue of Estaban from the Bugs and a temporary liberation of the animals from the chaotic entropy of the Bugs in the data. Estaban, now free to act (with a little help from his friends), makes the intuitive leap in logic that allows the Mathemagicians to write a "de-Bugging" program that washes most Bugs from the DifferNet. Marshaling his forces with an innate sense of leadership, the stereotypical angst-filled young man that Estaban was is also washed away, to be replaced by the brash leader of... well, talking packages of data that have assumed animal form for the purposes of this... metaphor... that he has become. Triumphantly, Estaban accepts the responsibility of the position of The Reasonable Man; in fact, each character displays a small moment of self-awareness and understanding. Even the denizens of the DifferNet allow him to perform his duties periodically, so he can return to the "real" world, ending the miniseries, but finishing in an open-ended manner to allow for a continuing series or a revisiting of the character. So, there you have it. Long hair and cut-off jeans, talking animals, and an actual reason he’s called Kamandi . Ya gotta admit, it’s better than Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes…

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